When Hongdou came out of Wang Bide’s house, she was already dispirited, and then, to make matters worse, she carelessly twisted her ankle going down the stairs. Adding insult to injury, this brought her mood to its lowest point.

Before coming, she hadn’t expected to convince Wang Bide all at once, but she also hadn’t expected to be rebuffed so thoroughly. As she saw it, Wang Bide wasn’t just stubborn — he was practically cold-blooded.

After limping along for a while, her anger gradually faded. She blamed herself — in her haste she’d thought it through wrong. Even if Wang Bide possessed extraordinary abilities, why should he necessarily take on trouble for himself?

She brooded resentfully for a bit, then quickly cheered herself up. She’d go home first and wait — maybe things weren’t as complicated as she thought. Since her brother had gone to the French Concession to gather information, perhaps he’d have some leads by the time he came back.

Wang Bide’s neighborhood was, one could say, tranquil amid the bustle — walking along, she encountered almost no pedestrians, only the alley kept branching off unexpectedly, which was somewhat disorienting. Fortunately it wasn’t far; just as she was about to turn another corner and get out of the lane, the ring of a bicycle bell sounded behind her. She turned to look — it was, surprisingly, He Yunqin.

Hongdou stepped aside, with no intention of stopping.

Unexpectedly, He Yunqin rode ahead of her and actually braked his bicycle to block her way, smiling as he said, “Miss Yu, shall we talk?”

Hongdou eyed him sideways. “What does Mr. He have to teach me?”

He Yunqin said, “Your brother is a police sergeant in the International Settlement?”

Hongdou was startled, and nodded guardedly. “Yes.”

“You heard about Wang Meiping’s matter from your brother?”

Suspicion began to grow in Hongdou. “What about it?”

He Yunqin took out a cigarette, struck a match to light it, but seeing that Hongdou’s face still showed some displeasure, he put the flame out again. “How exactly did your brother tell you about Wang Meiping’s case?”

This man was strange — why did he keep asking about Wang Meiping?

She answered very cautiously: “My brother never deliberately mentioned Wang Meiping.”

She paused, glancing at him — if it weren’t for that night when the old gentleman had gone to see Miss Qiu on the third floor, she wouldn’t have dug out that gossip news to read. That old newspaper had had a missing-person notice for Wang Meiping from three months earlier, overlapping with Chen Baidie’s disappearance case — hard for anyone not to take notice.

All told, her curiosity about He Yunqin was really the origin of her interest in this string of disappearance cases.

Of course, she only turned this thought over in her mind, and said aloud: “My brother saw that something had happened to Wang Meiping and felt Shanghai wasn’t very safe lately, so he specially used this matter to warn me not to go out at night from now on. Mr. He, why are you asking about this?”

He Yunqin put on a regretful expression. “With Wang Meiping’s case having come first, your cousin Pan Yuqi may really have run into danger. She’s a clerk in my research office — it’s only natural I’d be concerned, given this misfortune.”

The corner of Hongdou’s mouth twitched slightly. Really? Just a moment ago, who was it acting like it had nothing to do with him?

He Yunqin clearly knew what Hongdou was thinking, but wasn’t troubled by it. “Wang Bide has his own concerns. Though he and I are on good terms, I can’t easily persuade him either. Since your brother is in charge of these several cases, he’s reckoned to be the person who knows the ins and outs of the cases best. If you truly want to find your cousin, you’ll need to start with your brother.”

What did this mean? She looked at him suspiciously. “Is Mr. He giving me advice?”

He Yunqin didn’t deny it, and went along with it: “Is your brother home? Take me to see him.”

As he spoke, he pushed the bicycle forward, but turning back to see Hongdou still standing motionless, he had to stop again, and said idly: “Miss Yu, time waits for no one. If you keep delaying like this, no one will be able to save your cousin.”

Hongdou had already been uneasy inside; hearing this made her even more startled. She looked him up and down, thinking to herself: is He Yunqin planning to get involved in this matter? But Wang Bide was a master detective — she’d never heard that He Yunqin had any such talent.

He Yunqin never would have imagined he’d be subjected to such contempt from Hongdou. He stared at her for a moment, and said with a look that was almost a smile: “Has Miss Yu heard the saying — ‘one good fellow needs three helpers’? Though I’m not as famous as Wang Bide, I can still be of use offering ideas.”

Though his tone was joking, there was a confidence showing between his brows, evidence that he was indeed sure of his own ability in this regard.

Hongdou grew even more puzzled. He Yunqin didn’t seem like the type to act on a whim — he wouldn’t easily invite trouble upon himself. And investigating cases and finding people had its own methodology — how could an amateur possibly solve a case so easily? Otherwise her brother wouldn’t have spent months unable to find Wang Meiping, nor would he be so harried over Chen Baidie’s matter. Where did He Yunqin’s confidence come from?

She suddenly recalled the scene of that night, He Yunqin looking up at the upper floor outside the tailor shop door. These past few days she hadn’t seen him go looking for Miss Qiu — could it be that he hadn’t gone there that night to court her, but to investigate something?

After a moment’s hesitation, she decided to probe indirectly: “Has Mr. He investigated cases before?”

He Yunqin didn’t take the bait, turning his head to look ahead and asking instead: “Where do you live?”

Hongdou nodded with a smile, then suddenly her face fell, and lifting her chin high, she said: “If Mr. He won’t tell me the real reason for wanting to help investigate, I won’t take you to see my brother.”

Quite stubborn. He Yunqin turned his face to look at her sideways. Having stood in the sun for a while, her face had been baked a rosy pink, and out of anxiety, her lips were far less lush than they’d been the last time he’d seen her. To show that she absolutely would not yield easily, her small face was set without a trace of a smile.

He rubbed his chin, parked the bicycle against the wall, and said seriously: “Miss Yu, I promise you — whatever my purpose is in getting involved in this matter, I will do everything I can to help you find your cousin, and to protect your cousin’s reputation, unless absolutely necessary, I will not mention this matter to anyone. Third —”

He put both hands in his trouser pockets, walked up in front of Hongdou, and looked down at her: “However quickly Wang Bide could find your cousin, I will only be faster. With these three guarantees, will Miss Yu agree to cooperate with me?”

Hongdou pondered carefully, and when she looked up, she happened to meet his gaze looking down at her. Aside from her father and brother, she had never looked at a man this close up before. She only felt that the shape of his brows was very well formed, his complexion cleaner than her brother’s, and the color of his eyes, unlike her brother’s ink-black ones, was actually a deep amber.

She unconsciously looked away, fixing her gaze on his shirt collar instead, pondering to herself: was this person reliable? Might there be some trap? The only thing in her family worth his scheming over was, after all, her brother’s status as a police sergeant — could this sudden burst of kindness be aimed at that?

But then, what exactly was He Yunqin investigating? Could he be a bad person?

She couldn’t decide this on the spot. After much deliberation, she decided to take him to see her brother — after all, her brother knew the relevant details of several cases, and the case files were all in her brother’s hands. Whether or not to cooperate with He Yunqin, her brother should make that decision himself.

“All right then.” She lifted her face and smiled faintly. “I’ll take you to see my brother.”

He Yunqin secretly let out a breath of relief. Yu Hongdou, said to be about the same age as his fourth younger sister, seemed to have an extra measure of shrewdness — simply ten thousand times harder to coax than his sister.

He pushed the bicycle, glancing sideways at her: “What is Miss Yu still waiting for? Where does your family live?”

Hongdou recalled the scene from that night, and decided to test him: “Tongfu Lane.”

As she said it, she stared at him fixedly, unblinking.

A subtle change did indeed cross He Yunqin’s face, but in the blink of an eye, it returned to its calm, unruffled expression as he said: “Lu Jingheng might still be out there. I’ll go out with you, and once I’ve seen you onto the tram, I’ll head to Tongfu Lane myself — if your brother is home, I’ll come upstairs to find you.”

The two walked a stretch, and He Yunqin turned back to look at Hongdou’s slightly limping foot. “At this rate we’ll get there by the year of the monkey. Miss Yu, hardly anyone here recognizes you — if you don’t mind, I’ll give you a ride on my bicycle.”

Hongdou was taken aback — this meant he wanted her to sit on the back seat.

He saw her hesitation, and said with a faint mocking smile: “I’m only making a suggestion. If you’re willing, fine; if not, never mind.”

The implication being that he had no interest in her personally, and she needn’t overthink it.

Stung by this, Hongdou glanced both ways, reckoning she wouldn’t run into anyone she knew, and jumped up onto the back seat. “Let’s go.”

Deep down she privately thought of He Yunqin as a runaway horse she’d tamed, and herself as the rider, cracking the whip to drive this horse to serve her purposes.

Just as she was thinking how splendid this was, suddenly something jabbed her from underneath, and a dull pain shot through.

She yelped and shoved his back. “Stop, stop now!”

Yanked like this, He Yunqin had no choice but to brake the bicycle, turning his head: “What’s wrong?”

Hongdou jumped down and looked, and sure enough, on the back seat there was a rusted wire sticking out. Fortunately her trousers were fairly thick, otherwise it would surely have drawn blood. Even so, a hole had been torn in her trousers.

He Yunqin hurriedly parked the bicycle and, seeing this, reached out to press down on the wire on the back seat. When he’d bought this bicycle, he’d never once thought of using it to carry a passenger, so naturally he’d never thought to check the wire on the back seat.

As it turned out, Yu Hongdou was the first person to ride on it.

He’d vaguely heard the sound of fabric tearing just now, but couldn’t very well look at her trousers, so he could only gaze at her apologetically: “Your trousers tore? You weren’t scratched, were you?”

Hongdou’s face turned red with anger. She deeply regretted not having checked the almanac before going out today. Words she’d held back for a long while finally burst out: “He Yunqin, you really are the stingiest rich man I’ve ever met.”

Author’s note: I’ll pay, I’ll pay, I’ll pay — a hundred pairs of trousers for the wife.